Hannity protects News Corp.'s investment in the Republican Party

Tonight on his Fox News show, Sean Hannity made sure that his network's parent company was getting plenty of value out of its $1 million donation to the Republican Governors Association. While hosting GOP pollster Frank Luntz, Hannity showed a television advertisement airing in the race between Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat, and Republican challenger John Kasich, a former Fox News host:

Before airing the ad, Hannity described it as a "Kasich ad attacking Governor Strickland," but afterward, Luntz said, "That's a Republican Governors Association ad against Ted Strickland." Luntz is correct: The ad can be found on the RGA website.

During the segment, Luntz praised the ad profusely and used it to pivot to an attack on Democratic policies: "You never see a negative ad score so well among Republicans and Democrats alike. It didn't matter. They listened to the ad. And that last sentence, 'I wonder when [our jobs] will go,' is something that every American is thinking right now. 'When's it going to be my job on the line,' despite a trillion dollars of stimulus, despite bailouts of these companies."

You usually can't buy this sort of synergy in politics -- unless you're Fox News and the Republican Party. (News Corp.'s donation may even violate its own ethics policy.)

Media Mattersplans to draw attention to the matter by running an ad during The O'Reilly Factor that informs Fox News viewers about the donation.

You know, Fox News should just get it over with and change its name to GOP TV.

Actually, scratch that. It would make more sense for the Republican Party to change its name to the Fox News Party.

On December 7, President-elect Donald Trump named Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as his pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency. Media should take note of Pruitt’s climate science denial, his deep ties to the energy industries he will be charged with regulating, and his long record of opposition to EPA efforts to reduce air and water pollution and combat climate change.

President-elect Donald Trump has picked -- or considered -- nearly a dozen people who have worked in right-wing media, including talk radio, right-wing news sites, Fox News, and conservative newspapers, to fill his administration. And Trump himself made weekly guest appearances on Fox for a number of years while his vice president used to host a conservative talk radio show.